The NY Times takes a look into the recruiting and training techniques of the Blue Man Group. Before you get to try spitting paint and mouthing marshmallows, you have to be between 5’10” – 6’1″ and not “overly curvaceous” (there has been one female Blue Man out of about 80). New shows are popping up all over, so if you’ve ever wanted to run away and join the circus but knew that wasn’t exactly the right fit for you… well, just know that the paint doesn’t taste that great (but the marshmallows probably do!).

Kepler’s is reopening on Saturday at 11am. They are looking for volunteers to help prep the store and run the membership table. Which, I assumed, meant they are taking on a membership business model. And indeed, the Merc confirms that they are trying out the “public TV” thing. An initial $500,000 was invested by a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs as a kickstart and the Tan Group renegotiated the rent. Kepler is also closing his Belmont business office and relocating to the store itself. Square footage will remain the same size, despite rumors. The investors make up the new board of directors and plan to adjust the bookstore’s tactics to keep things afloat. The membership model is meant to encourage people not just to put in some money to help with expenses but to buy their books at Kepler’s, which, ultimately, is what really needs to happen.

Gigantic, heavy-duty Ziploc bags! Combine it with a straw and you’ve got your very own vacuum-packing system just like on those infomercials! Yes, I’m kidding, but I have sucked the air out of ziploc bags before for a pseudo-vacuum seal, a very handy trick if you’re not germ-phobic. (via not martha)

Just like a fine watch itself, there are many lovely details in this NY Times article on watchmakers. One percent of new watches are mechanical, thanks to the proliferation of quartz movements. There are five watchmaking schools in the U.S. (New Jersey, Oklahoma, Seattle, Pennsylvania and Minnesota) that have been set up by the Watchmakers of Switzerland Training and Education Program. In the first six months of training students learn Micromechanics, shaping metals with precision tools. They then get to work on actual watches in the next phase of training and eventually switch from blue shop coats to white as they move on to learn the intricacies of watch assembly. “Screws can be as small as particles of dust.” Watch connoisseurs and status seekers are keeping this unique discipline alive.

Louisiana Philharmonic Scattered to the Four Winds by Hurricane Katrina. Sprung from the remains of the bankrupt New Orleans Symphony, it is the only full-time symphony in America owned and operated by its members. They were to open their 2005-06 season last night. The Nashville Symphony has arranged for the LPO musicians to reunite in Tennessee for a benefit concert on October 4. Offers of possible employment, housing, and concert attire have been posted to Adaptistration.

We received our first Christmas catalog in the mail on Wednesday. That’s September 15th. How did they know I hadn’t finished my holiday shopping yet?

David Bowie returned to the concert stage last week after taking a year off to recover from his emergency heart surgery. His comeback show at Fashion Rocks included a song with Montreal band Arcade Fire (who swing out to the west coast tomorrow). He made a surprise (though hinted at on BowieNet) appearance at their Central Park concert last night. It’s a little surreal to remember that I was pregnant when I last saw him live at his Seattle tour stop in 2004.

I’ve decided that “experiments with gravity” would be an excellent phrase to print on a baby onesie and toddler t-shirt. (It would also be a good name for a band.)

When I recently posted that Patti Lupone will be starring on Broadway in Sweeney Todd, I neglected to unearth that the production is a John Doyle creation complete with his trademark of casting actor-musicians (dreamed up originally to save money on hiring an orchestra). Lupone, who played sousaphone in her high school marching band, will be hoisting a tuba onstage. Michael Cerveris in the title role will put down his straight razor (we hope) to sing along with his own guitar accompaniment. And the musicians’ and actors’ unions have agreed on a compensation plan for this overlap arrangement.

When I read “The Outsiders” as a teenager I somehow knew that author S. E. Hinton was a woman, in fact I knew her first name as “Sue”. Perhaps it was on the jacket of that or one of her other books (“Rumble Fish” or “Tex”) or maybe it was in a study guide, though I didn’t read her books for school. I didn’t know that she was somewhat of a mystery as she kept a very private life, nor did I know that she published “The Outsiders” when she was 17 (!!). Now in her 50s and still residing in Tulsa, Hinton consented to speak with the NY Times, prompted by the release of a recut version of Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Outsiders” on DVD. She reveals an unpleasant childhood and, not a surprise, a high school where Greasers (from the working class) clashed with the Socs (Tulsa’s oil rich). Her latest novels are for adults and have a touch of the paranormal. Happily married, with a son in college, Hinton says “my goal from being a child was to have a happy home life.”